Criminology Paper = Prison!

"Prison is not only a place for the incarcerated."

     Definitely. Prison takes the form of Criminology papers and is out to get me.

     Okay, I will admit that the article I am (almost) finished reading is moderately interesting. It's a 40 page story describing inch by inch the experiences of family who want to visit their incarcerated loved ones at the San Quentin prison. It really opens the eyes of yours truly; an upper-middle class young adult who really doesn't know the first thing about imprisonment (other than what I learn in my classes of course). I have come to the conclusion that while being imprisoned is no walk in the park, it sucks just as much to be the wife or child who is attempting to visit their criminal kin. Okay, lesson learned, can I go play Mario Kart now?!

     Yes, I am full aware that I am procrastinating. But somehow I got suckered in to telling my teacher that I would be finished this monstrous creation by tonight, and now I'm going back and kicking my yesterday's dumb-ass behind. I am in the frame of mind right now that it is a completely hopeless task, and I may as well give up before I waste my time trying to write a good paper; it will probably get an F anyway, seeing as it's so late.

     It doesn't help that Dublin is sitting on the chair staring at me. Taunting me is more like it. He's communicating that he may shit in a box but he can sleep and play and eat whenever he wants, and that to him, right now I look pathetic.

"Suck an elf!"

Um little insert: apparently in the UK, wives of prisoners are subject to strip searches due to increased security measures, and are considered "humiliating, especially, for example for women, who ... might be asked to remove [tampons] (Codd 2008, p. 61)". So what do the wardens say: "Um, excuse me miss, would you mind removing your tampon, I need to check your vagina to see if you're smuggling in heroin." Sexual harassment much? WTF?!!

Long, Long Time...

     Does that sound like the title or bridge of a country song?

     Anyway, I know it has been a really long time. Shame on me! I know. Perhaps I have no legitimate excuse, but I will attempt to offer one nonetheless; I have been so busy!! There were midterms, then I got sick, and now I have finals, and Matt is sick.

     When was the last time I went to class? Why are none of my papers done? Counting down two hours until my ten page Criminology paper is due. I have to write five pages on each topic, one of which is how families of prisoners are forced into their own version of incarceration due to the stigma of association. I feel that that topic is fairly easy to BS my way through, I think I can come up with enough information to fill hopefully four pages. The other topic is about how prisoners lose their self identity from the outside when they serve time, and how they are prisonized and form a new identity. I don't know how to crap that. There's only like half the necessary readings in my course pack, and it's soooo looong. I also have an eight page paper due tomorrow night on Masters and Johnson. While the topic is interesting at least, I need twenty articles and they're so long too.

     Why can't I just sleep as much as I want, take a bubble bath, read, and play computer games? Why do I have to have responsibilities :(